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Yahoo adds HTTPS support to Yahoo mail

Yahoo has begun to catch up with the other webmail providers and is now offering HTTPS as an option on its service. Support for HTTPS has been requested for a long time by users of the system to help improve their privacy when accessing mail, especially over Wi-Fi connections; logging in with HTTPS previously redirected users to an HTTP based service. Now users can select Options➤Mail Options and select "Turn On SSL"; this will ensure that HTTPS is enabled on their connection.

According to user feedback, the option appears to be being rolled out slowly and may not be available to all user accounts yet. Yahoo has made no official statement about the new option. The Electronic Frontier Foundation congratulated Yahoo on moving to fulfill a request that the EFF made in November to ensure SSL was available to users, especially those under repressive regimes where internet monitoring was common. The organisation is now looking at how to enable the Yahoo Mail SSL option automatically in its HTTPS Everywhere software.